What Will Your Dickinson Experience Be?
by Eric Fennel ’92, Alumni Council President
The Alumni Council has provided 100 years of service to the college, a milestone that current and former members, college staff and faculty came together to celebrate during Alumni Weekend (read more on Pages 12-15). We are grateful for Bernadette McFadden Stout ’07’s leadership as president these past two years, and I am beyond honored to support the council as its next president. As Bernadette noted in her last column, we entered our 100th year as a council with a revised strategy and a renewed sense of purpose. Dickinson is truly on the move, and we are ready to meet this moment and embrace our mission to activate and sustain alumni engagement across classes and generations.
During our 100th anniversary celebration, President Jones repeated a challenge he has issued to alumni across the country over the past two years—to think about what our Dickinson experience will be. Like many, I often described my relationship with Dickinson with pride and gratitude, but in the past tense. It’s where I went to school, where I met my wife, where I had a great experience.
Thankfully, a few years ago, the advancement team helped me find an opportunity to contribute to the work of the college in the present tense (thank you, Andrea Britton!). I was given a chance to support faculty as a guest lecturer and current students as an advisor and career counselor. The experience was a powerful reminder that I remain part of a vibrant community and that my relationship with Dickinson is lifelong and constantly evolving.
That recognition led me here—to the Alumni Council and an opportunity to both continue and deepen my relationship with Dickinson and my fellow Dickinsonians. In that same spirit, the Alumni Council will organize itself in support of helping develop and sustain the relationships that enable a lifelong Dickinson experience:
- the relationship between undergraduates and alumni
- the relationship between alumni across classes and generations
- the relationship between alumni and Dickinson as an institution
We are excited for the work ahead and will have more to share soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to take President Jones’ challenge: Consider what your Dickinson experience will be and join us in working to activate and engage the broader Dickinson community. Learn more about the opportunities available at dickinson.edu/volunteer.
Read more from the summer 2023 issue of Dickinson Magazine.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published August 21, 2023